Desperate Macron ‘plans to SACK police chief’ after Yellow Vest chaos

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly decided to sack Paris police chief Michel Delpuech after “yellow vest” protesters stormed their way into a government ministry with the help of a forklift truck, a high-ranking French source told Le Journal du Dimanche weekly on Sunday.

The chaos, which has claimed 10 lives since mid-November, has continued despite the government’s pledge to increase the minimum wage by €100 and reduce taxes. The 41-year-old leader has allegedly asked Christophe Castaner, his interior minister and close ally, to remove Mr Delpuech, 65, who has headed the capital’s police force since April 2017, the source added. His departure has not yet been denied nor confirmed by the presidency.

Related articles

An increasingly frustrated Mr Macron is said to be dismayed by the authorities’ failure to restore calm and quash the anti-government protests, which have spiralled out of control and led to 10 deaths, mostly from traffic accidents caused by roadblocks.

Saturday marked the eighth consecutive weekend of demonstrations by the citizen-driven movement, which erupted in mid-November over planned fuel tax hikes and rising living costs, but which quickly ballooned into a wider revolt against Mr Macron’s economic policies and perceived elisitm.

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, who was evacuated from his office through a back entrance when some 15 yellow vests smashed down the large wooden door to his ministry compound, denounced the break-in as an “unacceptable attack on the Republic”.

Mr Griveaux told franceinfo radio that “yellow vests and other people dressed in black … got hold of a construction vehicle which was in the street nearby” to force open the entrance gate.

They also smashed up two vehicles and broke some windows before managing to escape, he said, adding that police hoped to identify them from security footage.

“I wasn’t the target – they attacked the Republic, they’re calling for a rebellion. But won’t have the last word: the force of justice and the republican order will prevail,” he added.

Mr Macron also denounced the “extreme violence” of Saturday’s riots, which he too described as an attack against “the Republic, its guardians, its representatives and its symbols”.

“Those who commit these acts have forgotten what lies at the heart of our civic pact. Justice will be done. Everyone must now pull together and help pave the way for debate and dialogue,” he said in a tweet that reflected the government’s toughening stance against the movement.

The government, rattled by the unrest, has blamed the worst of the violence on anarchists, anti-capitalists and radical groups on the fringes of the yellow vest movement, so-called because of the high-visibility safety jackets all French motorists must carry.

The interior ministry said 50,000 people had taken to the streets nationwide on Saturday, compared with 32,000 on December 29. Some 345 people were arrested nationwide.

At least 4,000 yellow vests turned up on Paris’ Champs-Elysées on Saturday morning. The world-famous avenue has been the scene of violent clashes between yellow vests and riot police.

Saturday’s demonstrations began peacefully but degenerated in the afternoon as protesters in Paris hurled missiles at riot police blocking bridges over the Seine. Police responded with tear gas as they tried to stop people from crossing the river and reaching the National Assembly.

The rioters, known as “casseurs” or breakers, also torched motorbikes and set fire to barricades on Paris’ upmarket Boulevard Saint Germain. A riverboat restaurant was torched and a policeman was wounded when he was hit by a bicycle hurled at him by a protester.

Two months after they started paralysing traffic and staging the sometimes-violent street protests, the yellow vests wanted to inject fresh momentum into the movement, which clearly abated following Mr Macron’s concessions.

Last month, Mr Macron promised to increase the minimum wage by €100 (£90) a month, tax cuts for struggling pensioners and the scrapping of the planned fuel tax increases, measures which are set to cost the Treasury some 10 billion euros (£9 billion).

It was the first major U-turn for a president elected 18 months earlier on a promise to deeply transform France and liberalise the sluggish, heavily regulated economy.

But in his New Year’s Eve address last week, Mr Macron vowed to press ahead with his reform agenda, telling the French: “We can’t work less, earn more, cut taxes and increase spending”.

Faced with record low popularity ratings, Mr Macron is expected soon to set out his plans for the coming months. These include a nationwide debate on key ecological, fiscal and institutional questions, the results of which he says will help shape his policies.